oily smell

[LoneRider]

I've been smelling an oily yet slightly sweet smell whenever the heat is on. Now that it has gotten warmer, I'm smelling it whenever the engine is warmed up and running for a while. I thought this was just the new engine smell that will fade away, but I'm not sure that's it. I read something about coolant levels going down on the 1.4turbo, and I have noticed a drop in my coolant reservoir, albeit not a lot. I'm not sure what's going on here as the car runs just fine, so should I be worried about the smell?

 

[ColonelPanic]

Personally, I would be concerned about it considering it is well documented all over the internets that this engine has problems with coolant smells... It may be something tiny -- it really doesn't take much coolant at all to make a big stink once the engine warms up.

I never had the smell with mine, just a low level from the factory. After getting it topped off by the dealer, I stuck a piece of tape on the tank and marked it with a sharpie so I could spend the next 1,000+ miles closely monitoring the tank. Fortunately the level has remained constant. Whew.

Perhaps start with topping it off to the proper level and marking the surge tank to aid in monitoring...

 

[rdss]

Heres a thread about smells with the heat on thats been around for a while.
http://www.sonicownersforum.com/for...464-coolant-smell-only-when-running-heat.html